Example 1 of the non-profit media ecology

I let a lot of local non-profits send me emails, in part because I might use their services, in part because I care about their causes, in part because I teach this course. Fargo Public Schools and the YMCA told me in their weekly newsletters that they are part of a competition to win $3000; all I had to do is vote for them. I did that yesterday for FPS, and they were in fourth place (I wish I had written down the number of votes), but today they are in first place with almost 3000 votes. Their newsletter clearly generated a lot of votes for them. I also shared my vote on Twitter, which feeds to my Facebook stream, so if other people did something like that, they got a big reach yesterday.

Today, The YMCA newsletter contains a link to that same contests. They currently have 294 votes. Let’s see if their newsletter has a significant impact on their vote total.